


when the sun shines down upon us

by eggharbor



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: Angst, Autistic Hannah Foster, Childhood Friends, Ethan Green Deserved Better, Ethan Green Loves Lex Foster, F/F, F/M, Feelings Realization, First Kiss, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, Growing Up Together, Lex Foster is a Good Sister, look i just wanted them to be happy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-27 20:27:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22991686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eggharbor/pseuds/eggharbor
Summary: Ethan Green meets Lex Foster on the first day of sixth grade, and his life is never the same.
Relationships: Alice/Deb (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Lex Foster/Ethan Green
Comments: 30
Kudos: 205





	when the sun shines down upon us

Ethan Green meets Lex Foster on the first day of sixth grade. She’s assigned as his lab partner, and sits next to him without a word.

“I’m Ethan,” he tells her to fill the silence, and she flinches, like he’s surprised her. He frowns.

“Lex,” she says in answer, briefly meeting his eyes before directing her gaze back to her desk. She only speaks up again during attendance, and spends the rest of the period doodling in her notebook. He watches her from the corner of his eye, but he can’t really make out any of the sketches on the page. When the bell rings, she packs up in a rush, and it’s then his eyes catch one of the pins on her backpack.

“You like Les Mis?” He blurts out before he can stop himself. She whips her head around, eyes wide in shock.

“Yeah,” she answers, wary. “What’s it to you?”

“My friend Alice showed me,” he says, thinking back to Alice’s first audition at the local theatre, the one her dad had driven him to so he could cheer her on. She hadn’t gotten the part, but they’d gone to get ice cream after. That had been a good day. He likes Alice’s dad. He’s a lot nicer than Ethan’s own parents.

Lex brightens considerably. “You know Alice?”

Ethan tilts his head to the side. “You know her too?”

“We went to drama camp together,” she tells him. Then she smiles. “We’re both gonna try out for the musical next week!”

And Ethan has never really liked musicals in his life, thinks they’re kind of boring, actually, but he finds himself saying, “Me too!” And before he can take it back, he’s seeing the way Lex’s face lights up and the words die in his throat. He kind of thinks he’d do anything to see Lex smile that way, to watch her eyes crinkle slightly and her cheeks get all pink and happy.

“We should sit together at lunch,” she says as they walk out of class. “So we can talk about the show. What class do you have next?”

“Huh?” He says distractedly, too busy watching the way Lex talks with her hands when she’s excited. She playfully slugs him in the arm.

“C’mon! Where are you going?”

“Math, room 204,” he tells her.

“Oh.” Her face falls a little. “My history class is the other way.” Then, she grins at him, and shakes her head. “Eh, I can be late. C’mon, I’ll walk with you.”

They turn the corner, and Lex starts to ramble. “Who’s your favorite character in Les Mis? Mine’s Eponine, she’s so cool! She’s got the best song, too, she’s way cooler than dumb Cosette, only don’t tell Alice I said that, though, she’ll get all mad at me ‘cause she likes Cosette a lot. She says she wants to try out for Dorothy or Glinda, but I really wanna be the Wicked Witch because then they have to paint me green and stuff.”

She makes a face. “Hannah wouldn’t like that, though. If I have to be evil, even if I’m acting. She’ll cry.” Then she grabs his arm. “Oh, but I could show her backstage and she wouldn’t even have to watch! She’d love that, she’d get so excited and she could spend time with me and she wouldn’t have to go to the babysitter.”

She puffs up a little, proud of herself, before she shifts focus to him. “Who do you think you should try out for? I think you should be the Lion, he’s my favorite, he’s so funny. And maybe…” Ethan listens, content to let Lex fill the air between them, though he doesn’t know who Hannah is and he only understands about half of what she’s talking about. She has a nice voice. He wonders what she sounds like singing.

They get to his classroom too soon, and Lex waves goodbye, tells him to meet her in the cafeteria at lunch. He nods, tells her he definitely will. She smiles at him again before she bolts, sprinting down the hall to make it to second period. He watches her go, dazed.

What just happened?

Lex is the coolest person Ethan has ever met, and by Friday afternoon, he’s decided she’s his best friend in the world. She likes musicals but she also likes the old rock Ethan’s dad makes him listen to, and her favorite class of the day is art. She shows him her sketchbook Thursday afternoon, and shyly tells him that she’s been trying to do a portrait of him. It’s not finished, but it’s still amazing, and he tells that to Lex, who blushes bright red.

On Friday, after school, she has to pick up her sister, Hannah, from day care. She invites him to come to the park with the two of them and get hot dogs from the corner stand, an invitation he happily accepts. While they walk, Lex tells him about Hannah, and it’s obvious to him that Hannah is the most important thing in the world to her. Ethan kind of wishes he had something like that. All he’s got is his baby cousin Oliver, but he doesn’t really do much other than cry, which is no fun.

Lex talks to the woman at the counter for a minute while Ethan looks at the pictures on the walls. It’s bright and colorful here, but too quiet. Lex comes back to stand by him, and they wait quietly, until the woman returns, holding hands with a little girl in pigtails and hand-me-downs. “Banana!” Lex cries as soon as they walk through the door. The girl raises her head before letting go of the woman’s hand, toddling over to Lex and latching onto her leg. Lex smiles at the woman, and bids her goodbye before picking Hannah up, turning around, and walking out. Ethan follows her.

“Hate that place,” Lex mutters. “Wish you could just stay with me all day.” Lex uses one arm to support Hannah while she holds her, and uses the other hand to reach into her jacket pocket. She pulls out a small stuffed bear and hands it to Hannah, who pulls close to her chest, keeping one arm around Lex’s neck for support. Hannah doesn’t smile, though, even though Lex does.

He frowns at Lex’s words, but a small sneeze draws his attention back to the girl Lex is carrying. “Hi, Hannah!” He smiles. “I’m Lex’s friend, Ethan.”

Hannah stares at him blankly, and Lex winces. Ethan looks at Lex, who rushes to explain. “Hannah’s shy,” she tells him. “She doesn’t talk a lot.”

“Oh,” he says slowly. He knows Hannah is young, but he thought she’d at least say hi back. She’s at least three or four, and he remembers his younger cousins talking by then. Lex fidgets for another moment, looking down at the ground, before she looks back at him.

“Hannah’s on the spectrum.”

He furrows his brows, confused. “What’s a spectrum?”

Lex huffs out a laugh. “Hannah has autism. It means she thinks a little differently than us, and she’s more sensitive. She gets overstimulated really easily, and she doesn’t like to be touched a whole lot. She also doesn’t talk a whole lot.”

“Oh,” he says, processing. Lex sighs softly.

“You don’t have to come with us to the park anymore, if you don’t want to. I get it.”

“No!” He says quickly. “No, just… can you tell me more? Like, stuff I shouldn’t do, and all that? I just don’t know a whole lot about altruism—“

“Autism,” Lex corrects.

“Right, that. But I wanna know, y’know?” Lex smiles, bashful.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” he affirms. Lex starts off on another tangent, quieting to a whisper when Hannah starts flapping her free hand, which, as Lex informs him, is one of the ways Hannah likes to stim.

That’s another thing he likes about hanging out with Lex. He’s always learning something.

Alice comes out when they’re in seventh grade, and it’s all anyone can talk about for days. Ethan’s sick of it, and he’s gotten detention three times already this week for shoving the kids picking on her into lockers. It sucks the most today because he was supposed to be at rehearsal, and now he’s sitting in a dusty room, stacking books under the watchful eye of his thousand-year-old English teacher. He barely registers the sound of the classroom door swinging open.

“Hi, sorry I’m late, my teacher didn’t let us out until after the bell,” comes a familiar voice. He spins around to see his best friend in the world, who’s grinning at him, sporting a shiny black eye.

“Shit, Lex,” he breathes. She shrugs.

“No one fucks with Alice, am I right?”

“Language!” Their supervisor scolds. Ethan laughs.

“Sorry,” he says without remorse. Lex knocks into him with her shoulder.

“Besides, I couldn’t leave you all alone in here.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” he says. Her eyes soften.

“Wanna go pick up Hannah after we get out of here and go see a movie?”

He reaches to grab her hand, squeezing it. “I’m totally in.”

Alice tears up the next day at lunch, throwing her arms around them both for looking out for her, but Ethan knows he’d do it all over again in a heartbeat, even if she didn’t thank him. And by the look on Lex’s face, he can tell she’d do the same.

Ethan realizes he might like Lex as more than a friend when she invites him over to her house that spring.

“My mom’s out of town,” she tells him in math, “so me and Hannah are gonna watch Star Wars and eat too much sugar, if you wanna come hang out with us.”

He frowns. “Isn’t Hannah not supposed to eat sugar?”

Lex punches his arm affectionately. “You remember!” Then she smiles. “Yeah, the sugar’s more for me. I got apples and peanut butter for her from the store last night, and some Cheerios if she wants them.”

“Nice.”

“I know,” she snorts. “But we can order pizza, maybe.”

“Sounds cool,” he says. His parents won’t notice if he’s out later than usual. “What time?”

“You can just come with me after school. I gotta get Hannah from preschool first, though, if you’re cool with that?”

“Banana split!” He smiles. “Sure I am.”

Lex grins at him. “She’ll be so excited to see you. She likes you a lot.”

Touched, Ethan’s voice cracks a little when he says, “I like her, too.” Which, of course, makes Lex taunt him for being a sap, so he sticks his tongue out at her, and they get a warning from their teacher that he’ll switch their seats if they don’t quiet down.

Hannah gives him a high five when she sees him, which makes Lex happier than he’s seen her in a while. She relays a short story to Lex, told to her by her imaginary friend Webby that morning. Lex nods and asks questions at all the right parts, and Ethan feels a sudden burst of fondness for the Foster girls. He swings an arm around Lex without thinking, and tenses suddenly, expecting her to slug him. She doesn’t, to his surprise, choosing to lean into his side a little as they walk.

The Foster trailer is smaller than his house, but only by a little bit, a fact that seems to relax Lex a bit once he tells it to her. He can tell this is huge for her, letting someone see where she lives. It’s leaving her vulnerable, which is something Lex does not like to be.

They set up in the living room and huddle together on the couch. Hannah falls asleep before they even order the pizza, and Lex falls asleep before they can start Return of the Jedi. He smiles down at the two of them, feeling safe and warm. Lex yawns a little before burrowing closer to him beneath the blanket.

His heart rate picks up. _Oh, shit._

Alice gets a girlfriend in freshman year, just in time for the winter formal. Deb’s actually kind of nice, and she fits in with the three of them pretty well. She starts sitting with them at lunch, since all of her friends make Alice a little uncomfortable.

“So are you guys going to the dance too?” She asks one afternoon. Lex just shrugs.

“I don’t think so. No one’s asked me.”

Deb wrinkles her nose. “You’re not going with Ethan?”

Ethan stills, earning him a side-eye from Alice. Lex barks out a laugh. “Ethan? Gross, Deb, we’re friends.”

He stares down at his lunch tray, and sets down his fork. Alice reaches for his hand beneath the table. He takes it, squeezing twice.

Deb leans towards Lex. “So you’re just not gonna go? You can still go stag.”

Lex shakes her head. “Pass. I’ll probably stay home with Hannah or something.”

Deb seems disappointed for a second, before she moves her gaze to Ethan. “What about you? Anyone you’re planning on asking?” Deb looks to Lex quickly before looking back to him. Lex, engrossed in her mashed potatoes, doesn’t notice.

It’s a lie. It’s wrong and it’s a lie and he shouldn’t say it, but his heart is still stinging from what Lex had said earlier so he responds, ever so casually, with, “I don’t know, maybe Grace Chastity?”

Lex’s head shoots up. “ _What?_ ”

He tries his best to school his face into a bored expression. “Yeah, she’s pretty, right?”

“Grace Chastity is a nerdy prude,” Lex scoffs. “You can do better.”

“Can I?” He challenges, and Lex rolls her eyes.

“Fine, ask her, for all I care.” She stands, leaving behind her tray, and storms off. Alice tightens her grip on his hand.

“You don’t want to ask Grace Chastity. You want to ask Lex.” He sighs in affirmation. Alice bites her lip. “Ethan…”

“Does it matter?” He asks roughly. “She thinks I’m gross.” He stands, then. “I’m think I’m gonna skip the rest of the day. I wanna be alone. Let Lex know so she doesn’t worry?” Alice and Deb both nod, looking up at him with sympathy. He nods mechanically. “Thanks.”

He knows Lex didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, and he feels bad for the Grace Chastity thing, and he’s sure tomorrow they’ll both apologize and everything will be fine. But right now, walking away from school by himself for the first time in months, he can feel the absence of Lex so acutely that it physically hurts. And for the first time in years, Ethan cries.

Lex gets her first boyfriend in sophomore year. He’s in the smoke club and he sits on the other side of her in shop class with Mr. Houston, and Lex is infatuated with him. Ethan doesn’t bother learning his name, not even when he starts sitting with them at lunch. He hates the guy. He doesn’t treat Lex the way he should. He’s always showing up late and he thinks Lex talks too much and he wants her to hang out with him more than she hangs out with Ethan, which pisses him off. Ethan sees less and less of Lex every day, and his chest aches.

They don’t last long, though. Lex shows up at his door one night, Hannah in tow, cheeks ruddy and streaked with tears.

“Asshole called Hannah a retard,” she fumes. “I told him we were fucking done.”

He doesn’t tell her “I told you so,” or ask where she’s been for the past few months while Ethan’s been alone. His parents are out of town again, so he lets her in without a word, and makes her tea, and lets him sob into his shirt. He lets Hannah pick the movie, and they pile onto his couch to watch. He lets Lex curl up on his chest, and rubs circles on her back. Within minutes, both she and Hannah are fast asleep. He watches over them with a gentle smile. He missed Lex more than he’d ever admit. He never could stay mad at her, not when he’s so in love with her.

His breath hitches in realization. _Oh._

Lex is avoiding him.

He notices it immediately. She’s always waited for him on the front steps to walk in to the building together, and she’s always waited for him between classes so they could keep each other company, and they’ve always sat together at lunch, always spent rehearsal whispering to each other backstage, always walked to pick up Hannah together after school. But now, it’s like Lex has suddenly evaporated. She’s not even answering his texts or calls. He knows she’s at school, since they have class together, but she’s even swapped seats so that they aren’t right next to each other. He’s going to explode.

He storms over to Deb and Alice, making out by their lockers. “What the fuck is going on?”

“Ethan!” Alice gasps. “Don’t do that, you scared me!”

“Why is Lex acting like I died?”

Deb winces. “Oh. You noticed?”

He huffs. “Of course I fucking noticed. Why is she avoiding me?” His face falls. “Did I do something wrong? Does she not want to be friends anymore or something?”

Deb and Alice give each other a look. “Ethan,” Alice tries, “maybe you should try talking to Lex—”

“You think I haven’t tried?” He roars. “She won’t talk to me. She’s not answering my texts.”

“Ethan, calm down,” Deb says sharply. He shakes his head.

“I just don’t understand.” His voice gets desperate, slightly unhinged. “I’m losing my mind here.”

Deb reaches out but he backs away from her. She looks at him sadly. “Give her time.”

“How much time?” He shouts, throwing up his hands. “The rest of the week? Till the end of the school year?”

“Ethan!” Alice cries. “Enough!”

He finally snaps out of his haze of frustration and realizes that the rest of the student body has stopped moving, fixated on his meltdown. He takes a shuddering breath in.

“Just… I’ll give her some space, okay? But can you just ask her what I did?”

“You haven’t done anything, Ethan,” Alice says soothingly. He gives her a sad smile.

“Nah, I probably did. I’m always fucking things up. I was just hoping I wouldn’t fuck up the best thing in my life.” And then he turns around to walk off, and before he can take a step, he makes direct eye contact with the girl he can’t live without.

“Ethan,” she says, voice raw.

“Lex,” he answers, staring. And then she bolts.

He knows the knock on the door is Lex before he even goes to check. His parents are gone more often than not now, and he really doesn’t have anyone else in his life. He opens up the door after schooling his features into a neutral expression, and he sees Lex, Hannah by her side like always.

He addresses Hannah first, because he doesn’t want her to think he’s mad at her. “Banana split! How we doing today?” Hannah eyes Lex for a moment before she raises her hand for a high five. He gives her one. “A good day, that’s so great. Hey, Hannah, would you mind going back to my room and picking out a movie?” She nods and takes off down the hall, and he smiles after her.

“She missed you,” Lex says.

“Yeah? Was she the only one?” And then he turns to look at her, really look at her, and _oh, God_.

“Don’t,” she whispers, but Ethan can’t help it.

“Lex,” he murmurs, cupping her cheek. She hisses as his fingers make contact with the dark red handprint, and not for the first time, he curses out Lex’s mom in his head. “Sorry,” he tells Lex. She shakes her head, closing her eyes.

“It’s okay,” she says. She looks up at him then, biting her lip. “I’m not mad.”

“You’re not?” He repeats, and all of the tension in his shoulders melts away. “Thank God.”

“I’m sorry I left you like that, with no explanation.”

“It’s fine, Lex.” He grimaces. “You had your reasons.”

“Not good enough.”

“Good enough for me,” he tells her firmly. “You’re here now, that’s all I care about.”

She stares at him with wonder. “You really mean that.”

He makes a face. “Uh, duh. I mean, I think I’ve made it kind of obvious that you’re the most important person in my life.”

Her lip wobbles. “Hey, heads up, if you don’t kiss me in the next five seconds, I’m probably going to cry.”

He stumbles in shock. He can’t have heard her right. “What?”

She shakes her head, smiling. “Five,” she starts. “Four, three, two—”

He kisses her, then, pressing his lips to hers softly, and it’s more than he’d ever imagined it’d be. He’s been in love with Lex probably since the moment he met her, and he’s pictured this so many times, but nothing can even come close to how it feels to finally have Lex in his arms like this. They break apart, and Lex presses her forehead to his.

“Been wanting you to do that for a while.”

“You kidding?” He tells her. “I’ve been pining after you for years, Foster.”

“Really?” She asks him, awed. She looks so cute that he can’t help but press a quick kiss to her nose, because _he can do that now_.

“Really.”

They hear Hannah’s footsteps coming back down the hall, so they break apart hastily, but keep their hands intertwined. Hannah’s picked out a Star Trek movie, and Ethan smiles down at her fondly. “Nice choice, Banana. Couch?”

“Couch,” Hannah affirms, turning and walking away. “Thank you, Ethan.” Lex gapes at her retreating form. Ethan’s eyes grow wide.

“Did she just—”

“Talk to you?” Lex finishes, grin creeping up on her face. “Like, answer you directly and address you by name?”

“Told you she liked me!” He smiles down at Lex, who squeezes his hand.

“She’s not the only one.”

He kisses the top of her head. “Let’s go watch that movie, huh?”

Yeah, they’ve got a lot to talk about, and it’s probably going to leave them both in tears, and their lives are train wrecks, but none of that matters to Ethan because right now, in this moment, Lex looks so incredibly happy, and he knows he’ll spend the rest of his life trying to keep that look on her face.

Cross his heart and hope to die.


End file.
